18 victims, most of them Shia pilgrims, were returning home when attack took place. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE

PESHAWAR / DI KHAN: Outlawed terrorist group Jundallah has claimed responsibility for an attack a bus on Karakoram Highway in the Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which killed 18 people on Tuesday.

The attack took place when gunmen opened fire on the bus which was en route to Gilgit from Rawalpindi with 39 passengers on board. The bus was owned by Mashaburum private bus service.

Seven armed men stopped two buses and a coaster. The armed men were reported to be in Army uniform. They asked the passengers to get off the bus and shot them after checking their CNICs.

Most of the victims were pilgrims who were going back to their native areas after visiting holy shrines in Iran.

A source in the district administration in Dassu told The Express Tribune that residents of Tangir’s Darkai valley, Commander Abdul Qayyum, Saddar Shariat and Burhan Shariat, sons of Gul Shahzada: Abdul Karim and Abdul Qadeem, sons of Abdul Ghafoor are suspected to be involved in the massacre.

Driver Muhammad Younus of Nagar valley, Najibullah, Suhail Ahmed are among the deceased.

“All the people on board were Shia, and at the moment it looks like they were targeted by armed men from the local Sunni community,” a senior police official had earlier told Reuters.

“Armed men hiding on both sides of the road attacked the bus,” local police chief Mohammad Ilyas said.

“Initial reports said 18 people have died and eight wounded,” he added.

Police officials said the bus came under attack in an area inhabited by two Sunni tribes about 430 km (267 miles) north of Islamabad.

The ambush happened near the town of Harban Nullah. DCO Chilas confirmed the incident.

The bodies of the deceased have been kept at Shatial hospital.

Local MP Abdul Sattar Khan linked the ambush to the murder of two Sunni Muslims a few days ago in Gilgit.

“The people of the area had vowed they would take revenge,” Khan told AFP by telephone.

Rehman Malik constitutes three-member investigation team

Interior Minister Rehman Malik constituted a three-member investigation team which will be supervised by the Deputy Inspector General of Hazara Division.

The team will comprise members from Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and police officials.

The team will produce an investigation report within three days.

President Zardari takes notice of the attack

President Asif Ali Zardari, while taking notice of the attack said that the injured admitted in the hospital should be facilitated with the best treatment.

President Zardari also sought an investigative report of the attack.

Schools in Gilgit to remain closed for three days: CM G-B

While speaking to Express News, Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah said that he was in contact with the chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and that investigations were underway.

“We [G-B government] have alerted the army, Frontier Corps and police so that no other incident could take place,” said Shah.

He said that section 144 has been imposed in Gilgit, while schools will remain closed for three days.

Shia-Sunnis remain brothers: KP Information Minister

Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, the KPK information Minister said that the incident took place near Harband Nala, some 65 km from Dasu. He said that the bus was on its way from Rawalpindi to Gilgit when it was attacked at around 8:30 am “16 dead bodies have been handed over to the authorities in the area so far” said Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

“People of a particular sect were targeted to create chaos in the area,” the information minister said, reiterating that Shia and Sunni’s were brothers.

For how long will the sectarian war go on? our people are killing each other just to prove whose sect is better,how many more lives have to be lost due to our obsession with religion and our public’s taking it too seriously.How many more people have to die on both sides for us to be satisfied.

Stop self-congratulations on Oscar award and deal with the real problems of Pakistan: terrorism, lawlessness, over population. Pakistan is fast becoming like Somalia. The only news coming out of Pakistan everyday is negative.

I knew we were in for serious trouble after allowing the Difa-e-Pakistan types to hold rallies in Pakistan with impunity. They may declare jihad against the US, India, Qadianis etc. for populist reasons but in reality, they were just raising the jihadist tempo against Pakistan.

O, Muslims.
For God’s Sake.
Stop fighting amongst yourselves. Because we are already facing multiple enemies from all sides of our borders.
All true muslims would probably agree with me that no muslim (Shia or Sunni) can kill a fellow muslim (Shia or Sunni) on trivial differences. These incidents are perhaps being planned by those non-muslims who never like to see Islam prosper and expand. But unfortunate part of the story is that our few fellow-muslims become tools in their hands and start supporting such activities.
Dear Muslims (All Sects),
Please understand the precarious situation for our religion and try to find out those who are masterminds of all this.

@Adnan:
had the justice been served after mastung’s incident .. this would not have happened .. but CJ has eyes only for missing terrorists and corrupt politicians !!! y would he care for filthy bunch of “kafirs” being slaughtered !!!

Here we go ,we claim Islam means peace and they have been killed only because they belong the SHii school of Islam . ZIa and his radicalization , talibanization has ruined our society , we say we are muslims, i wonder even if we Humans first …. I belong to Gilgit, and this problem has roots from General Zia times, before that sunni , shia unity was exemplary , during his regime kohistani people killed hundreds of shia community in Jalalabad it was infect ethic cleansing, we have lost hope with country for our security and justice

The culprits are surely banned outfits from Chilas linked with same outfits from Giglit city.
The impact such act of barbarism engulf entire population of Gilgit Pakistan. There is possibility of tit for tat in any part of Gilgit Baltistan in encounter of this barbarism.

I am unable to understand why in Pakistan, a country that claims to have been formed as a safe haven for the Mohammaddens of the Indian Sub-Continent and one that goes to extreme and discriminatory lengths to emphasise its Mohammadden identity , killing fellow Mohammaddens simply for following a different variant of Mohammaddenism happens so frequently?

… and yet, we’ll all rally against foreign governments and agencies in large numbers but wouldn’t bat an eyelid when it comes to internal sectarian divides and home-grown murderers roaming around freely.

How can you people ask for Kashmir with a straight face? If you monitor Indian news, no Kashmiri muslim has been killed for the past 6 months but there seems to be atleast 15-20 violent deaths caused by terrorists in Pakistan every day.

Can you guarantee Kashmiris will be safer with Pakistan than with India?

Shia massacre in Mastung, in September 2011, is repeated in Gilgit today where Shias were offloaded, identified & then martyred.. 03 children & 03 women are amongst the 18 Shia muslims killed today by Taliban terrorists in Pakistan.

i’m from gilgit and i’m quite aware of the ground realities that exist there.Nowhere in history you are gonna find a single incident of such magnitude and type happened on karakoram highway from the shiite side.Why is it always from the sunni side?
i’m startled at the response taken by ISlamabad.would it be this much careless and lazy if such incident took place in the heart of islamabad or lhr or somewhere other than GB? i dont know when the center is gonna start taking the nascent province seriously.I have my sister on way to Gilgit today and only i can understand whats the level of fear that we have in traveling byroad to gilgit.Please islamabad wake up now before its too late.

please leave us alone, the peace loving community of north, all of us shia, sunni and Ismailis, we had lived here for centuries without questionining each others belief till Zia’s curse infected us back in 1988.

For more than five years such type of killings are happening in normal conditions in Gilgit-Baltistan. We use to hear such news everyday, though this is worse attack since 2005.
One may ask who is responsible for this?
Obviously! the non-serious behavior of G-B Government is responsible for these everyday killings.
The Government need to be serious to refrain such attacks from happening in future.

It is not a simple sectarian clash, it is not for creation of violence, It is just to establish that Sunnies can not live with Shias. 65 years back Pakistan was made on TWO NATION THEORY, now new divisions on TWO SECTS Basis.

Unfortunately, sectarian violence against Shia and Ahmediya communities go un-noticed and guilty are rarely brought to book which makes these killers bolder each passing day. Are they not part of Pakistan??

Remember , Divide and conquer. These act of killing innocent civilian are really disgusting but who actually gain from them? Who created jundullah? Next thing we would know would be some sunni being killed and blamed on shia.

The solution: We need to stand united and get rid of all these killers organizations

@Irfee: Shame, u r justifying the killing here Mr!!! isn’t it showing ur support to such acts in future(Did ur religion allow this? maybe if you have already deviated), if thats the case then 1 against one should be the result…and this is not the first ever attack on this minority sect. One of ur sect member died and u took the life of hundreds wat a STUPIDITY.

I thought Jundallah is a Sunni militant organization based in Iran, as they regularly target Iranian soldiers and Shia mosques. Does this mean that our JuD, HuT and Difa-e-Pakistan mullahs are working for the Americans as well in a grand conspiracy to contain Iran and the Shias? After all, grand conspiracies is a central talking theme of these mullahs anyway….

There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religion. -William Howard Taft, 27th US president (1857-1930)
.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, these savages are not a secret society but part of open plan living.

When sunni,shias and ismailis are unite to eradicate the menace of terrorism in Gilgit-killing of innocent travelers is a question mark….. People of GB do not be intimidate because terror and traitor is already in fear…lets unite for peace of the motherland and root out terrorism…Recommend

Hi , there is no Labration or so called army, we gilgiti love Pakistan without any conditions, we love to Pakistan is just like our love to our mother…. we are not bloch or Pathans…we are G8 Maglos…. But……according to ground reality after 50 years of Independence form Dogras we still have long way to get recognized ourselves form Pakistani establishment, we belong to no mans land why??? why we have no equal rites like other provinces??? i think there is lobay in this country to make people hat Pakistan slowly…

This brutal and inhuman practice is not new for GBs after 88 war waged by estabilishmnet of our own country in the face of Taliban who made adventure to purge the shia community from the area and spreed their own version of faith from Afganistan to Pakistan. Gilgit-Baltistan is a Shia dominated area and all such incidents takes place when the people rise their voices for their polotical and financial right.This incident also happened after series of events has taken place for demanding their rights like to solve their territorial issue with K-P befor the starting of Daimir Dam ,financial rights with the federal who earns billions of rupees utilizing the G-B resources like minerals, forests, tourism, wildlife and many other royalities & natural resources and the constitutional right confered by SC many years ago.

“Shia pilgrims traveling in buses should carry weapons with them always. The state can never be relied upon to protect you at all times, especially not with a government run by a crook.”

“Shia pilgrims traveling in buses should carry weapons with them always”
Blaming the victims for not carrying gun, eh? You do know they were travelling/returning from an another country Iran, right? Do think Iranians wont throw them in jail if they found weapons on the pilgrims?

“state can never be relied upon to protect you especially not with a government run by a crook”
So according to you zardari should be escorting the bus that was attacked while army and FC are busy building DHA and brutally killing our own citizens, i.e. baloch? The reason we have lawlessness is because self-proclaimed protectors are doing everything but their job!

Here we live in the 21st century… The world is crossing every barrier of developement and we are still fighting with each othe for being a sunni or a shia… We have become puppets in the hands of those who exploit our emtions for their benefits… Its not just ignorance rather ignorance of the ignorance prevalent in our society… The culprits should be caught and punished severely and radical steps should be taken to avoid such incidants…. May the souls of the deceased rest in peace

First they came on for Parsis,after that Came on for Budhists,then they Came on for Hindus,Then they came for Sikh.
When there is not so called “Infidel” left,they started within themselves.
First Ahmadis,now Shia.
Next what???
Carry on and one day U all may vanish in this process of “Infiedel Hunting”.

The corrupt government of GB is also responsible which has been ignoring the tensions and killings in the area since three years. Presently army has control of most of the Gilgit city, some areas controlled by Shias while Sunnis are fortifying positions in the remote area. Kohistan was selected for the crime as the murderers would get logestic support there as the local population was used by State for sectrian crimes in past.

People who target and kill innocents are terrorists. The terrorists can call themselves by any name they wish, but they will always be identified by their actions. Pakistanis have been under attack by the terrorists for quite some time, and these terror attacks have increased in the last few days. Our sympathies and condolences go out to the Pakistani nation and the families of the innocent people killed in today’s attack. It is ridiculous to blame any of these attacks on the United States. There is no evidence whatsoever to support this accusation against the U.S. The terrorists are as much our enemy as Pakistan’s. We need to step-up up our cooperation and go full force against these killers. Their attacks without remorse on innocent women and children show how desperate they have become. Isn’t this the time to stop indulging in conspiracy theories and focus on the menace of terrorism? Peace can only prevail if this menace is eliminated once and for all.

Where are Difa e Pakistan goons. Why don’t they visit this part of our country???? Our faces are blackened in the world through these acts of those whom we fail to touch, but why?? Government knows who and where they are so why not Operation Cleanse Up taken against these elements who so bravely claim to be behind these inhuman acts??? Their ID cards were checked and then killed. Shame on all those who give protection to these barbarians.

This really is OUR, Pakistan’s, war…at least for minorities, moderates and liberals who don’t want further Talibanization. The claim that fundamentalists will simply leave or disappear after the US goes is ridiculous. The militants and the terrorists will remain along with their prejudiced religious twisted munafiq sympathizers, which sadly seem to be a huge chunk of Pak society who’ll lie and deflect with xenophobic excuses on why the violence is happening to ease their own bias and culpability, while cheering on notorious extremists and terrorists at the Difa-e-Pakistan rallies. The sectarian and twisted religious hegemonic agenda in creating regional oppression through murderous violence and aggression will continue unless Pakistanis themselves choose not to let it be so. Sadly, unlikely.Recommend

It seems like the country is at the mercy of Terrorists, who are imported from all around the world to our country, under the names of Taliban, Al Qaeeda or Jandallah etc, in order to sabotage its peace and progress. Who is behind the conspiracy and massacre? While the fact is that Pakistan has nothing to do with all these terrorist groups…
What are our government organizations doing? What are our intelligence organizations doing? Who will try to change this negative image of Pakistan? Today everywhere Pakistan is considered the most dangerous country. The international media defuses only negative news about our country, what is our Ministry of Information and Media doing?
How these weapons and bombs are coming into the country? Is there any way to control or not? The military needs to have a massive operation through the country to clean up the weapons. All the weapon production should immediately be banned. All the weapons shops from Karachi to Khyber should be banned.
If we like to save the country then the government must take an immediate action before it gets too late! For God sake, think about the future of this country… save the country…

If killing is the only solution! Kill each other once and for all and settle this! Illiteracy is to blame, Saudi-Arabia is supposedly the center of our religion are they doing something to educate the Muslim Umma! I don’t think so they are too busy racing cars, jets skis, are they researching in science and technology! Aren’t there indications in the Holy book of “Buraq” has anyone from Saudia been to outer space…. But the Jews and Christians and Hindus have! Religion is supposed to be a personal matter! I am disgusted to hear such news… lets us save GB from this disease of sectarian killing lets us be tolerant!

Biggest enemy of Islam are not India, Israel or west, but Muslims themselves. Leave aside wars, Ha any Muslims been targeted anywhere in terrorism? There have been social riots in India, but not cold blooded killings like this. Why can’t Pakistan unite to stop all this. If Pakistan can observe Kashmir day each year, why not a anti-sectarian day ? When there were hindu-Muslim riots in Kolkata in 1947, Gandhi is went there. Riots stopped? Try Gandhian methods, it will help.

come on ppl, understand the bigger game…its more than sectarian based violence…its the USA and other powers exerting their pressure on Pak to provide bases for invading Iran. Shia’s are being targeted to sever ties building b/w Pak and Iran (whose aim is to contain American presence in the region.)…Ever thought why Anti Iran Jundullah Group claimed the responsibility? jundullah has had a history with CIA in the past. High time for Pakistan.

I just cannot comprehend such massacres of innocent people. How can some one point a gun and shoot at an unarmed human being? It doesn’t matter whether the victims are Pakistanis or Shiyas or Mumbaikars – they are ordinary folks who love their families and try to earn a living. This is just so unsettling.

@Sindhu: have you ever thought how could outsiders come into Pakistan to kill Shias? Is your administration so bad that anyone can come kill people and walk away without getting captured? If Muslims do not back off such outdated and inhuman mentality you will end up killing eachother into extinction. I hope that does not happen ever. Recommend

@Mehboob:
your ancestors died blaming other countries , they never thought of issues with in Pakistan … same you will die like this … if you really concerned first look for problems within Pakistan…. others have nothing to do with this..

Such unchecked terrorism shows the complete spinelessness,cowardice and apathy of the Pakistani Government. The basic function of any government is to protect its people. if Zardari and Gilani cannot do this basic job,they out to resign.

Sectarian violence has been one of the biggest problems of the region. It’s not just a matter of one single incident taking place in an area, and resulting in a specific number of casualties; it’s about the extent to which such atrocities affect the social fabric of the region in the long term. Every such incident comes with a number of inevitable consequences, which, more than anybody else, affect the lives of innocent masses. Three people have already been killed in Gilgit city since the massacre took place exacerbating the already existing sense of insecurity. It is very much possible that things go back to normal in a few days; whether or not they will stay normal is hard to answer.

I do not think it is fair to blame the government for this incident. The hatred in the hearts of these people is intense. If you go to GB and see the KKH one would realize that it is impossible to have security everywhere on KKH. The highway is so long and narrow that there is not much the government can do. But the people have to realize it themselves that such hatred over centuries is doing no good. Investment by the government in policies to bring shia and sunni together are need. Interfaith dailogue and education can only change this. There is no short term solution to this. Federal government has to invest in the children’s education so that they are not brainwashed by their parents and learn to live in peace with shias and sunnis.

This is what happens when you place religion on a higher pedestal than what it deserves. You don’t owe your life to anybody for the simple reason that you did not beg to be born. Your life is yours and yours alone. Religion had nothing to do with your existence.

I request CJ to take notice of this continuous cleansing of shias in Pakistan. One of the reason of this country’s suffering is thousands of innocents are killed here and no one is there to provide them justice.

What a shame, Pakistani law enforcement agencies have been repeatedly failed to protect security to the passengers specially shias of gilgit baltistan. Its a sad news and the attacks are strongly condemned.

What a pathetic silence from all humanity. This has been going on from many years and we are just following veena malik and oscars and all.
US is so very right to drone them. These terrorists should be killed in the most painful ways imaginable. Curse these savvages. Curse them.

Do you know that Quaid I Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was Shia Muslim? All religious parties objected creation of a Pakistan, Yes Shia s are being punished for creating Pakistan. If you want to have peace in Pakistan? Say no to sectarianism. Peace and tranquility for all religious entities.

Partition took place because some muslims felt they couldn’t live with the Hindus
Bangladesh took shape because some Pakistanis felt Bengalis were not equals and they couldn’t live with them
Now some muslims in Pakistan feel Shias are not muslim enough and they cannot live amidst them.
Wonder what narrow distinction will manifest in the next cause of divisiveness

I guess when a nation was built on the premise of divisiveness (when there was so much of a shared past one could have put ones faith on), the seeds were sown for the pattern to continue into the nation’s future. I have often felt the only difference between Pakistan and India was the leadership that set the vision for each of these countries. It is not the way we dress,what we eat, the music we hold close to our hearts, our family values etc.

And Pakistanis say people like Hafiz Saeed are peace loving people, I know this incident is not linked with his brand of terrorist outfit but as long as the sympathies are there, these incidents will continue, as long as these terrorists keep holding “dafa-e-Pakistan” rallies and people religiously keep flogging to these rallies held in the name of anything against America, people will keep on being killed in the name of religion. Time to end our religious obsession and get rid of these terrorists who have brain-washed our entire nation.

Well, is this correct that Jindullah accept the killings, this might be a false call like after every blast Taliban claims resposibility through a.Rehman Malilk, but the fact that there is no ay prove of it. I think that this type of news of showing the name of Jindullah will only cause to start sectarian fight, media should know its responsility and hide such newsRecommend